It is known to provide a blender having a mixing chamber for reception of two or more materials to be blended. A mixing paddle is mounted within the mixing chamber to stir the materials within the mixing chamber for blending the materials within the mixing chamber prior to discharge to a process. A disadvantage with these types of blender is that the mixing tends to be fairly coarse and vigorous within the mixing chamber and thus it can be difficult to achieve an accurate blending of the material additives with the process materials. Also, in these blenders, because of their constructions, there may be dead areas in the mixing chamber where unblended or only partially blended materials collect. Further, these blenders are sensitive to the density and particle size of the material to be blended. It is also difficult to process relatively small quantities of material and achieve the required blend. Thus, these blenders are somewhat limited in the range and quantities of materials that can be successfully blended.
The present invention is directed towards overcoming these problems.